If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, Spanish egos should be boosted by yesterday's narrow defeat to England in the final of the European Under-17 Championships. The Football Association has used Spain as a key role model in a bid to overhaul youth development across England. With long-ball tactics now kicked firmly into the philosophical long grass, there is a greatly increased emphasis on technical excellence and possession football.

Yesterday's technically adroit 2-1 triumph against Spain in Liechtenstein not only meant that John Peacock's teenagers became the first England men's team to lift a European trophy for 17 years but vindicated a policy designed to raise standards and attract silverware.

In 1993 an England Under-18 side featuring Gary Neville, Sol Campbell, Paul Scholes and Robbie Fowler won the previous incarnation of this tournament after beating Turkey at Nottingham Forest's City Ground. The intervening years, starved of international success, have seen the Premier League dominated by overseas players with leading managers including Arsène Wenger protesting that young English footballers are not as technically accomplished as their foreign counterparts.

Recognising the need to raise the technical bar, Sir Trevor Brooking, the FA's director of football development and Peacock, who aside from his U-17 duties is the organisation's head of coaching, have fought fierce internal battles to raise the revenue necessary to fund the implementation of their new philosophy. The central tenets of the FA's radical new coaching programme for young English players are set out in the recently published 275-page document The Future Game but living, breathing, short-passing, tactically aware manifestation of this earnest treatise's importance arrived in Liechtenstein.

Courtesy of a winner scored by Connor Wickham, a striker already in Roy Keane's first team at Championship side Ipswich, England defeated a Spain side who had won this tournament or its equivalent eight times since 1986. In contrast England reached the semi-finals in 2003 and 2004 before being losing finalists in 2007.

"We have great respect for the Spanish and what they've achieved in recent years," Peacock said. "They've been the benchmark for European youth football but we think we are now starting to achieve what the Spanish team have been doing over the years. At the FA we've just published a document called The Future Game which highlights the point about the need to play possession football, to have players that are very comfortable in control of the ball and who can play out from the back.

"We've been trying to encourage these things over the last few years and I think we're getting better at them. English academies are now beginning to develop homegrown players who can play at the highest level. In the final against Spain there was some outstanding play in a game between two very technically gifted sides. We've still got our critics but winning the trophy means a lot to the English game and shows we can produce technically accomplished players."

Among the best of the crop are Middlesbrough's Angola-born full-back Bruno Pilatos, Manchester United's midfielder Will Keane (no relation to Roy), the left-footed Chelsea schemer Josh McEachran and Arsenal's prolific striker Benik Afobe. Brooking was thrilled to see a philosophy he has fought so hard to nurture pay dividends and singled out the young Chelsea centre-half Nathaniel Chalobah for special praise along with Wickham.

"Nat is still only 15 and he was playing against players nearly a whole two years older than him," he said. "Nat was excellent and Connor got a great winner to add to his two goals in the semi-final but, more than anything, it was a great team performance. There's still a long way to go in their development but it's important for them to get that taste of winning early on in their careers. Hopefully a few of this group will progress into the Under-21 and senior teams."

Brooking trusts the example set by Peacock's juniors will soon be emulated by Wayne Rooney and company in South Africa. "It's a long time since an England men's side won a European title so this is a magnificent achievement," he said. "Let's hope it rubs off on the senior team at the World Cup."